BANGKOK — Three American volunteers for a U.S.-based Christian evangelical organization have been detained in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, the group said. The website of the U.S.-government funded Radio Free Asia cited an unnamed Luang Namtha police official saying that the three had been arrested but were not detained. “What we know about these three individuals is that they are not detained,” it quoted him saying. “Their passports have just been confiscated.”The RFA website also quoted an unnamed U.S. State Department official as saying: “We can confirm the temporary detention and subsequent release of three U.S. citizens in Luang Namtha, Laos. Luang Namtha is best known as a waystation for backpackers travelling between Laos and China.

Source: Washington Post April 13, 2019 10:02 UTC